Archive for December 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

We're throwing a little party tonight, so we've been trying to get ready for that. Half of the house is clean and I made my dessert last night. I've only made a cheesecake one other time, so we'll see how it goes. I'm sure it's not as good as a gas station cheesecake, but it looks and smells pretty good! 


Christmas decorations are unfortunately still up, my luggage from Christmas still hasn't been unpacked, and there's still toys everywhere. A perfect time to replace all of the doorknobs in our house! Goodbye shiny brass knobs! 

Vance stayed up past his bedtime last night helping, so he's sleeping in this morning. Vaughnie had a diaper malfunction around 5:15 this morning, so she ate after I got her cleaned up, so she is also sleeping in. Must go take advantage of this time!

Hope everyone has a great and safe New Year's Eve!  

Tuesday, December 30, 2008



No time for words today. Here's a picture from Christmas Eve. 

Monday, December 29, 2008

Forgot to add that Vaughnie's 7th tooth pushed through on Christmas. (This is more for my records.) 


Christmas Morning




We had a great Christmas. Here's the kids on Christmas morning. Vance was just a little excited about his 4 wheeler. The rain on Saturday deterred his riding, but he informed us on Sunday that, "It looks like a pretty nice day to ride the 4 wheeler". 

We returned home late Saturday afternoon from being away at my parents and has been non-stop ever since. Laundry and grocery shopping have been done. Christmas is only half put away and the toys! The toys are everywhere still! I was going to clean out old toys before Christmas, but didn't get around to it. It's a must do right now because the amount of vehicles that Vance has right now is sickening.

We were invited over for dinner at a neighbors house last night. We've only met him once, he stopped by when we were moving in and introduced himself and randomly called a few days ago. He's trying hard to get our neighborhood "friendly" and I admire his attempt. Like us, his last neighborhood was close-knit, family-friendly place and this one is anything but. He also invited 2 other families, but they were unavailable. We didn't know that we'd be the only ones attending, but were glad we went. It took us a long time to make friends in Wisconsin because we didn't extend ourselves and we don't want a repeat of that here. Last night was our "foot in the door". Hopefully it will happen again. Guess the ball is in our court now.  

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Ho Ho Ho!




2008 was quite a year! We've been through a lot and wouldn't have survived without the love and support of our family and friends. We are truly blessed to have such great people in our lives!

From our family to yours, Happy Holidays!



I guess Vaughn is trying to show us that she needs a pillow.

On friday night she pulled up onto her hand and knees and started rocking back and forth. Won't be long now.  

Wow, this blog has been boring lately. 


Vaughn has begun the whole separation anxiety stage. It hit Vance around 9 months, so she's early in my books. I can't take the whining and the crying when I walk away from her. My brain can't multi-task when there's whining involved. 

Vance has been waking up early too. He thinks the fun should begin the minute he wakes up. By 9:00 am he's already cranky and in need of a nap, but of course, still won't take a nap. I've been trying to keep him busy, so there hasn't been too much blogging time. 

I woke up early today to try and write something witty and funny, but to no avail, both kids have also woken up early. 

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Blogger hasn't been working correctly for me, that's why there's been no posting going on. 


Knee is working again. 

Starting to get panicked about getting everything done for Christmas. Still waiting on gifts that were ordered online last week to arrive. 

Got 2 curtains sewed the other day. Need to do 2 more. 

Cookie Making Day is this Sunday. 

Must run. Will post more today.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

So, we've been having dishwasher problems. Problems with our 5 month old dishwasher. It's been leaking a little (trickling water, not gushing) on one side of the door, just enough to begin the warping  and discoloring stages of our wood floor. We've had a plumber out once, then the Dishwasher Fix-It Man has been out, let's see, 3 times. After our visit yesterday it now leaks on both sides of the door, thus opening the door for more wood floor damage. I'm thinking Dishwasher Fix-It Man will soon need a new name, because I'm starting to doubt his powers.

In other exciting news my left knee is out. Can't bend and put weight on it. Stairs are out of the question. Must be all the exercising that I'm not doing. 

While Vance is at school today, I'm planning on working on kitchen curtains. Here's a reminder of what the windows looked like when we moved in. Painful to even post that.

Monday, December 15, 2008

We haven't had a weekend like that one in a long time. We were up late on Friday and Saturday night, the kids were up early each morning, and Vance was extremely cranky all weekend long. 


We did get all of our shopping done over the weekend, such a nice feeling! We also bought another baby gate. (We have two that we used with Vance, but they wouldn't work for the stairs.) Vaughnie isn't crawling yet, but she's doing a good job pulling herself and rolling to get where she thinks she needs to be. 

Since we've had the carpets cleaned, Daisy has tracked in mud at least 3 times, Vaughnie has spit up at least 5 times, and has had one poopy diaper leak. This white carpet is SO not for us. 

The Dishwasher Fix-It Man was here again this morning, still not knowing why it's leaking. It's under warranty, so these visits and parts aren't costing us anything, but this has been his 3rd time here. He thinks I'm using too much soap, so I'm supposed to back down on that and he's ordered yet another part to try out. 

Christmas cards were just delivered. Going to open them up and see how they look!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Birthday Boy Justin



Happy 31st Old Man! Hope you have a great day! We love you!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Need some advice! What do I get Vance's teachers for Christmas? 


At his old school, we did gift certificates for both teachers. It's kind of nice - there's a list of what places the teachers would appreciate gift certificates from - so it was an easy buy. Not to mention how much I liked his old teachers, so I didn't mind buying for them. 

So this has been the second week of going to the new school and I don't know what to do with his new teachers. And he has 3 of them! After already buying for two, I don't want to go broke buying for 3 more. 

So, my question - especially for those teachers out there - what's a good gift idea?


Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Suck

I finally ordered Christmas cards yesterday. I'm putting fate in the hands of the Shutterfly fairies, as I did not upgrade to the faster delivery option. At the latest I'll get them on the 20th which means everyone should be receiving them oh, around the second week of January.  


Vaughnie's 6th tooth pushed through today. Teething. Such a fun time.

Vance dropped the F bomb at dinner tonight. Actually, it was more of an S bomb because his F's sound like S's. "Oh, suck" he said after he dropped his fork. Nice. 

Monday, December 08, 2008

One year ago today





These are some pictures from one year ago today. Lots of snow was on the ground. (Vance is so used to having snow that he keeps asking, "Where da snow at?" Proof that he's still confused about where we live. And the fact that he keeps asking to play with kids that live in our old neighborhood.) Blurry shot of the Capitol building in Madison and Wisconsin people are crazy about their sports teams. 

Dishwasher man just left. Claims the problem has been fixed and it won't leak anymore. Let's hope so! Carpet cleaners come tomorrow - yea! Our house unfortunately has white carpet, which is obviously not kid and dog friendly. Will see how long we can go without having to replace it.

Vaughnie is down for a nap and Vance says his tummy hurts, so he's laying down next to me right now. Looks like it's going to be a slow morning. Maybe can get some shopping done online! 

Friday, December 05, 2008



This won't be the picture on our holiday cards this year. I usually do a collage of pictures throughout the year for our card, but this year has been a blur and I don't have as many pictures that I normally do. I've been trying to get a picture of the kids all week and they pretty much look like this one. Vaughn is expressing what I feel like.

Justin has been gone since Sunday and gets home today. Thank God. I'm tired of being a single parent. I've also started working out again and its finally caught up with me. I'm sore everywhere, but no pain no gain, right? 

Vaughn woke up early this morning and wouldn't go back to sleep. Vance always gets up early when Vaughn does, so it's been a long morning and it's not even 8:00 yet. Going to be a long day.

What's up for today? Little Gym, errands, and Vance's Christmas program at his old school tonight. To make sure he's totally confused about where he's going to school we're taking him back to preform at his old school. They've been practicing The Song since October, so his teachers asked if he'd like to come back for it. 

Later

Thursday, December 04, 2008

2nd Day of School

Last night Vance told me he wouldn't cry when I dropped him off at school today. He held true to his word, no tears! His eyes got a little red, but we said our goodbyes and off he went to do some coloring. Just wanted to let everyone know how it went.

We moved into this house almost 5 months ago to the day. After unpacking, the one item that we couldn't check off of our "Moving Day Bingo Card" was the 24 ft. extension ladder. Somewhere in the mix of packing our house up in Wisconsin, hauling and unloading everything in a vault in Earth City, and then 3 months later re-loading our stuff to bring it to our new house, the movers had misplaced it.  


We filled out the claim forms (we had a couple other claims - 1 broken pedestal table and touch up paint was needed on Vance's dresser drawers since they were dropped on the way in the door). A man came out to re-touch the furniture and we were sent a check for the value of the table. They added that they needed a little more time with the ladder. They wanted to look a little harder for it around the vaults. (It's a 24 foot extension ladder. There's not too many places it can be hiding.)

Last week Justin and I are on the couch, each with our laptops, like we are every night after the kids go to bed. He turns his so I can see the screen and asks, "Does this look like our ladder?" I replied that it couldn't be are ladder. Our ladder would have smiled more with its eyes for the picture. 

Apparently, they did find a 24 ft. extension ladder, took a picture and sent it to us to verify that this was our missing ladder.  I can see how this would work for something else, but does one really know what their ladder looks like? And how many lost extension ladders do they have hanging around? 

Yesterday our ladder was returned to us. I guess we're complete now. 

 

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

I had my first eBay encounter last night and won. I can see why it may be a little addicting! I bought Vance a group of 7 talking Bob the Builder trucks. I haven't been able to find them in stores and online I could only find Scoop, which sold for around $15.00. I got the whole lot for $37.00. Don't tell Vance!


Speaking of Vance, he was so excited to see me when I picked him up from school. He claims to have had a good time and his teacher said that he did well for his first day. He says he wants to go back on Thursday, so we'll see how he does at drop-off tomorrow. 

Yesterday was only the second time I've been alone in the house since we've moved in. Vaughnie was there, but you know what I mean. I got a lot done around the house while Vance was at school and it was nice having my chores done so that when I picked him up we could play. 

What's up for today? A couple errands, maybe the library for Vance, and another round of trying to get a decent picture of the kids for Holiday cards. 

Oh, and remember the phone book situation back in Wisconsin? I think the count was up to 8 that I could remember. It seems to be happening here too. We've received two in the past couple of weeks. Hopefully that's it. Really? Does anyone still use those? 

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Vance's First Day

It didn't go too well today. As soon as we got to his classroom he started to cry and attached himself to my leg. After failed attempts of trying to get him to calm down, his teacher and I had to pry his little fingers off of my leg and off I went. 


The Director emailed me later to let me know that he did quickly calm down and settled into the activity after I left.

On a happy note, I timed the drive home from school. It took 3 minutes and 50 seconds to get from the school parking lot to my garage. Can't beat that.

I pick him up in less than 2 hours. I can't wait to see him and hear about his day. 

 

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